Which NHS organisations are leading this programme?

The Path to Excellence programme is being led by a partnership of local NHS organisations including NHS South Tyneside Clinical Commissioning Group, NHS Sunderland Clinical Commissioning Group, South Tyneside NHS Foundation Trust and City Hospitals Sunderland NHS Foundation Trust – working together as the South Tyneside and Sunderland NHS Partnership.

Between them they are responsible for commissioning (planning, choosing and buying) and delivering many of the major healthcare services across the area, including the healthcare services we talk about improving in these public consultation proposals.

This period of consultation will include a series of public events and a range of ways for local people to get involved, find out more about the issues under consideration and to give their views.

What is this consultation about?

There is an urgent need to improve the quality of care and make better use in particular of the staffing resources we have around some key NHS hospital services in South Tyneside and Sunderland.

This consultation looks at aspects of stroke, maternity (obstetrics), women’s healthcare (gynaecology) and children and young people’s healthcare (urgent and emergency paediatrics) NHS services and how they could be better arranged in order to provide improved care for local people.

The purpose of the public consultation is to allow local NHS clinical leaders the chance to explain the challenges around the way these services are currently being delivered, the different ways local doctors, nurses and hospital-based therapy staff think these services could be provided both now and in the future, and to listen to public feedback about these different proposals.

They will share the information they have used to come up with the proposals, for example the best practice clinical evidence from the Royal Colleges, feedback from patient experiences and engagement, the independent travel impact review that has been carried out, current hospital service quality indicators and information about resources and finances.

What are you asking local people to do?

We are asking local people to consider the information presented and share how you think these potential changes could affect you or if you think the proposals can be improved and how things might be done differently in the future.

This period of consultation will also allow NHS clinical leaders to work together with patients and the public to generate ideas and shape solutions, ensuring as many people as possible have their say on any potential changes.

What will happen to the feedback received during the public consultation?

Public feedback will be analysed into themes and publicly reported to ensure it influences the final decisions which will be made by the two NHS clinical commissioning groups early in 2018.

Any future changes to the way services are organised would only be made in order to improve the quality and safety of those services for the future, make the best of our staff, as well as making the best use of public money and meet the needs our population both now and in the future.